A BOOK REVIEW

The sky is falling!   The sky is falling!

Chicken Little

If you only read one book on science this year it should be Field Notes from a Catastrophe – Man, Nature and Climate Change; written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published in 2006.    This book addresses the issue of climate change with startling examples that verify legitimate science predictions.  

For the decades after the industrial revolution the idea that mankind could be instrumental in changing the environment was never considered.

Because of concerns of some scientist a study was undertaken in 1979 by members of the National Academy of Science and NASA on the effect of increase carbon dioxide emissions in our atmosphere.   The findings were so startling that President Carter commissioned a special panel led by a distinguished meteorologist from MIT for further study.    In the three decades since the predictions of this panel have come to fruition, but at an accelerated rate.  

There have been hundreds of more peer reviewed studies since, all verifying the results: until at last we can make a definitive statement that the CO-2 in our atmosphere is increasing beyond the predictions of normal climate variation and that the results is an increase in global temperature – and the results are verifiable by visible and measurable observations. 

Starting in 1991 the earth temperatures have exceeded all temperatures recorded since instrumental temperature recording began.   The results are most startling in the Arctic where glaciers are melting at an alarming rate.

As CO-2 increases more of the suns energy is trapped in our atmosphere.   As glacier ice recedes solar energy is absorbed by the ocean causing water temperatures to rise, which results in more glacial recession…   As permafrost melts CO-2 trapped in the ice for millions of years is released into the atmosphere…  Add this to population increase and industrialization of third word countries and the outcome is bleak.  

“Computer models of the earth’s climate suggest that a critical threshold is approaching.   Crossing over it will be easy, crossing back quite likely impossible.”

Elizabeth Kolbert has just released a second book The Sixth Extinction; and I have my name on the reserve list at the local library for when it becomes available. 

Good science – good reading – a good book

the Ol’Buzzard

GOOGLE vs. the NSA

In the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.

George Orwell: 1984

My wife and I have been gone from home for a number of days.   Today, after a five day hiatus, I turned on my computer and within minutes my disk drive started to whirl and I had a pop-up notice from Norton showed that a download was in progress and was deemed safe.  

I clicked the info tab for more information and found that GOOGLE was downloading something named ‘widevinecdmadapter.dll’ into a folder with other GOOGLE downloads that I didn't know existed. 

Every other program asks for permission to update or modify its existence on my computer; but GOOGLE does it totally without my knowledge (if it weren't for my Norton virus program.)  

This has happened before: perhaps when we download Google Chrome on our machines the permission for shadow downloads is in the fine print of the agreement that we never read but all accept.

Just think of the information that GOOGLE can collect on us: it can read our G-Mail, our Blogs, see our map searches and know our travel plans, catalog our searches, identify our banks and financial info, see our income tax submissions – and have programs running on our cell phones and computers that we are not aware of.   Why are we worried about the NSA: our info is out there – much of it hosted by GOOGLE. 

Conspiracy theory?   No, just a fact.   Government information gathering tied in with all the major communication companies is, like global warming, a fact of life.   And, like global warming, it has gone too far to be reversed.  Our information is out there. 

This is the new world we live in that has resulted from global technology.    We are in the big brother world and for the most part we remain unconcerned and apathetic.

  

The similarities to 1984 are startling.   But fuck, I am too old to worry about it: my major concern is how I am going to afford new tires for my motorcycle.

 The two I value most.

the Ol’Buzzard  

YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID

I just had a bible rant complete with chapter and verse as a comment on one of my blogs.

The biggest lie that permeates our society – the foundation of our American philosophy – is that all men are created equal.  

All men should have equal rights; but the old argument between nature and nurture addresses the fallacy that all men are created (born) as equals.  

Severe retardation is not an inherited trait; but borderline retardation (barely functional IQ’s) is passed through the genes.   All people are not equal in their mental and physical abilities: an indisputable fact.

People with low IQ’s are easily influenced by any movement that will give them recognition and praise: these are the people that are prayed on by religious fundamentalist churches, political propaganda and charismatic snake oil salesmen.  

However, our individual make up is more complicated than just our intellect.  Who we are can be generally defined by our DNA; our social environment; and our education or access to information.

Our color of hair and eyes, general appearance, disposition, and in some degree our intelligence is influenced by our DNA: traits handed down from our parents and their blood line.  

Our belief system, values, dress, actions and civility are primarily determined by the social environment we are raised in and to some extent live in as adults.  We all had little control of our indoctrination during childhood.

Our prospect to live logically and process information at a higher level is determined by our access to information, the depth of our experiences and opportunities. 

This is all generalization; but does offer some food for thought on why people are the way they are.

the Ol’Buzzard 

IOWA - FIRST IN THE NATION

COGITO ERGO SUM

Hear we are almost two years away from a Presidential election and the news reporters are already starting to talk about Iowa.   As far as the Democratic Party is concerned I don’t understand why they don’t just blow off Iowa and not show.  

Iowa is one of those mid-western states that live in a time warp.   If you were unfortunate enough to sit through the movie Nebraska, then you have an understanding of the culture in Iowa.   This is a culture that views all non-white people who live in cities and coastal areas with suspicion and distrust.  They are corn fed farmers and people that support the farming industry that don’t understand a multi-cultural society and don’t want to understand.   They are Christians by inheritance and critical by culture. 

NEBRASKA CLIP

Policies don’t matter to the Corn Belt voters – their minds are made up.   Education doesn't matter; because, like throughout the deep south, you can have graduated from high school and even a university and still be scientific and culturally illiterate.  

Doesn't mean they are bad people - just entrenched in mid-twentieth century culture. 

Just my opinion

the Ol'Buzzard

MEMORIES

During the 1950, when I was a teenager in Mississippi – and before television, I often listen to gospel music radio programs out of Memphis late at night.   That is when I first heard Windy Bagwell.

He was a gospel singer/comedian; and his routine I remember best was the story about a snake handling church in Tennessee. 

It is funny how something like this that has lain dormant in my id for decades can surface.  For some reason as you grow older you seem to recover memories long forgotten.  

I looked him up on YouTube and unbelievably found this clip. 

Anyway here is Windy Bagwell and the Rattle Snake Story:

And the spirit continues:

Most Christians are parrots and social conformist; but these guys are real believers.

the Ol'Buzzard

SPRING TIME COMES TO WESTERN MAINE

We have past the spring equinox and moved past the benchmark day of spring.   Finally the temperatures are moderating and the snow is beginning to melt - leaving us with the beginning of mud season.   

March was hard with temps at night dipping to zero and day temps at or below freezing.   It is not that we are not use to cold weather in Maine, but the tease of spring on the cusp had everybody anxious.  I dug out the door to the motorcycle shed and removed the cover on my ride - and started looking at prices for new tires and a new battery; but the March weather would not relent.

Snow from our metal roof stacked up beside the house obscuring the view from the living room window.

In the kitchen the basil plant voraciously soaked up the short sun times between snow storms.

But as all things pass: here in April (7th) spring has finally arrived - the dirt appearing through the snow pack on our road ( the harbinger of mud season.)   

And the snow is starting to recede.  

The basil plant has taken on a new life in the south facing kitchen window and yesterday we found a lady bug on the sill.   

We still have a way to go, but the day temps are now in the forties and fifties and the nights are above freezing. 

It is just a matter of time before I hear the deep throat roar of a motorcycle on the main road 

the Ol'Buzzard

4:30 am

This is the dark time of the morning

The time before the world ignites

The time before the cacophony of sounds

drown out the sounds of the world.

I can hear the clock ticking

I hear the refrigerator fan running

I wonder if I will have to replace it soon?

Far in the distance I hear the air brakes of a semi

Only he and I are awake.

He sits in his cab lit by the green lights of the instrument panel

His heater running, country music playing on his radio

The rest of the world is in the death of sleep

Wait!  Breaking news: there is a plane missing in the Indian Ocean

Breaking news: 200+ people presumed dead.

Breaking news: we know no more than we knew two weeks ago.

not breaking news: millions of  people have died in the last two weeks:

died of disease, old age, starvation, violence, war, still birth, accidents, genocide…

Breaking news: tigers are dying – send eight dollars to Save the Tigers.

Russian troops on the border of Ukraine

“It takes a good guy with a nuke to stop a bad guy with a nuke.”

Send in the Military: 

Of course, the people proposing this are not the people who would die.

Breaking news: The Supreme Court has struck down the law limiting political contributions.

Now, the rich will run the world just as they have always done since the industrial revolution – and before.

A tornado just destroyed a house in Kansas

And the occupants are on their knees thanking Jesus for sparing them.

Jesus obviously loved them more than their neighbors

who failed to take refuge in the bathtub

and died when the house fell on them.

Do we live in a multiverse of bubble universes and parallel worlds?

I just farted and it stinks.

the Ol’Buzzard